Beautiful People

30: angry, young and man

Being the sister of Bryce Walker usually meant that people would stare at you, they would talk about you and they would wonder what it was like being in your shoes. But being the sister of Bryce Walker after he was pronounced dead, was even worse than anyone could ever imagine. Everyone had agreed that now Lily was coming back to school they had to be with her at all times, just in case someone said something to her or made a comment that she wouldn't be able to handle on her own. She needed support and they all decided to help her, even if they hadn't liked Bryce very much.

Zach had picked her up from her house and had checked that she was really ready for the commitment of coming back to school. She had only missed a few days and they were willing to compromise because of the unsettling circumstances but she was convinced that she needed to be back in school. She needed a distraction from the drama at home, organising the funeral and contacting her Dad. She needed to be with her friends, even if it meant listening to them talking about who was responsible.

When they stepped out of the car, everything seemed to slow down as they were the focus of every student arriving at school. Zach stepped closer, trying to protect her from the stares but she didn't care, she knew that everyone was going to be watching her and she tried to ignore it. She smiled and waved, seeing Alex and Jessica waiting for them by the main entrance and decided that if she was going to manage coming back to school, then she had to pretend that nothing was wrong.

"Ready for this?" Jess asked, offering her arm to her friend.

Lily held onto her tightly. "Nope, but it's now or never."

The four of them entered the school building, heading towards their lockers as they wanted to get ready before the school day began. They were a real sight, the four of them together and everyone silently wondered how they had all managed to stay friends throughout everything. Just when they thought that they could handle the start of the day without any drama, they were proved wrong because the jocks decided to make a show out of it.

"Hey Lily-"

"Back off." Zach warned, stepping in front of his girlfriend so that they wouldn't come any closer.

"We just wanted to apologise and offer our condolences."

"Yeah, well, you've done it now so you can leave." Alex added, making the jocks frown.

Even though she knew that a few of the guys were nice and didn't mean any harm, she didn't trust any of them. Charlie gave her one last nod before chasing after the other jocks that had walked away. She liked him, but he always hung out with Monty and if he wasn't careful then he would get dragged into all of their mess. Lily turned back to her locker, thanking the two boys for standing up for her because she didn't want to deal with the jocks today.

But the drama wasn't over because Zach was about to explode from the pent-up frustration that he had and it only took one more thing to aggravate him before he blew up. That one more thing came hurdling down the hall in their direction, his hand waving an envelope in the air and his camera resting around his neck. He was excited to show her what he had brought in that day but hadn't realised what he was running into.